Upper Arlington wing Nick Heath plays full-speed ahead after having tumor removed
By Aaron Blankenship | Photos courtesy of Nick Heath
COLUMBUS, Ohio — After spending countless hours honing his basketball skills and improving his strength and conditioning, Nick Heath had high expectations entering his junior season.
Thus, the 6-foot-4 senior wing was perplexed and concerned when he started getting winded while running up and down the court at the beginning of last season.
Sensing that he needed to push himself harder during workouts, Heath stayed after practice to participate in additional sprint drills; but the harder he worked, the more he struggled, to the point where he started finishing last.
“My skills were better so I was hoping for a big year, but I just didn’t feel good,” Heath said. “My coaches were ripping me in practice, and understandably so, because it looked like I wasn’t working as hard as I should have, but I was pushing myself as hard as I could, to the point where I felt like I was going to collapse.”
Despite his low energy level, Heath shot the ball well last season and averaged 11.6 points per game. But he continued to feel worse.
After playing a little over two minutes in Upper Arlington's 59-48 victory over Walnut Ridge in its Division I district tournament opener, Heath’s heart was racing so quickly and he was so out of breath that he checked himself out of the game for good.
Just a day later, blood tests revealed that his iron and hemoglobin levels were dangerously low, causing him to be anemic. Anemia is a condition in which an individual lacks enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to their body’s tissues, leaving them feeling tired and weak.
Frightening discovery
Heath had to sit out UA’s 50-43 loss to Worthington Kilbourne in a sectional final, and a CT scan found a 4-inch tumor on his spleen, which was depleting him of red blood cells.
“Having to sit out most of the tournament hurt for sure, but my skin was pale, my heart was beating so fast it felt like it was going to explode, and I couldn’t get air into my lungs,” Heath said. “When my mom (Leslie) and I first heard that I had a tumor, we were scared because we immediately thought about cancer.”
A biopsy revealed that the tumor was benign, and Heath’s spleen and tumor were surgically removed on Aug. 9.
“No one knew what was going on with Nick and why he was laboring last season,” said 21st-year UA coach Tim Casey. “He never complained or made excuses, and he fought through it the best he could. When he was diagnosed it was almost a relief, because we knew what he was dealing with, and we knew he was going to get better.
“Nick’s a special kid, and I believe all of this adversity only made him stronger.”
After receiving an intravenous infusion to increase the iron in his blood, Heath quickly began to feel like himself again.
He received four IV treatments, with four-week intervals between each infusion, which allowed him to play AAU basketball over the summer before having his surgery.
“I felt 10 times better after my iron infusions,” Heath said. “About a week later, my skin wasn’t so pale, I was eating more and I could breathe better.”
Heath played so well for the Mid Ohio Pumas AAU basketball squad — coached by Denison University assistant coach DeVon Price — that he gained the attention of several Division III college basketball coaches.
In October, Heath made a verbal commitment to play basketball at Denison after being offered a spot on the team by head coach Chris Sullivan.
“A few other Division III schools were talking to me, but I really like what Denison has to offer as a coaching staff, team and school,” Heath said. “It felt good having the opportunity to continue playing in college, but I wasn’t completely satisfied yet, because I still had a lot of unfinished business with my high school team.”
Thriving in his senior year
During his senior season, Heath has taken care of business, as he averaged 15.2 points and five rebounds and made a team-high 50 3-pointers during the regular season.
The first-team all-league and third-team all-district selection made 49% of his field goals in leading the Golden Bears to first place in the Ohio Capital Conference-Central Division with a 7-3 league mark, ahead of runner-ups Hilliard Davidson and Olentangy Liberty (6-4 each).
“Nick’s a very skilled basketball player and a phenomenal shooter,” Casey said. “Nick can shoot it with the best players I’ve seen in my 37 years of coaching.”
In UA’s league finale against Davidson on Feb. 18, Heath made all six of his field-goal attempts and went 9-for-11 from the foul line on his way to scoring a career-high 25 points to fuel the Golden Bears to a 73-62 victory.
“Nick’s a cold-blooded killer who sets the tone for us and gets the job done,” UA senior point guard Owen Gawel said. “I had to guard him all summer, so I haven’t been surprised at all by how he’s been able to light teams up this season. Nick’s shooting from the perimeter is ridiculous. There’s times in the gym where he doesn’t miss a shot for an hour straight.
“He also lifted hard over the summer to put on a lot of weight, and he’s back to bullying people inside the paint, which is an underrated part of his game.”
Heath said he learned the game’s fundamentals from his father, Mark, who played basketball at Ohio Wesleyan University in the 1990s. He also credits Casey with taking his shooting to another level.
“Learning basketball from my dad in my driveway when I was little helped a ton,” Nick said. “Coach Casey has always believed in me, ever since he met me when I was little, and he’s worked on a lot of the small details that have really helped. Coach taught me to switch up the speed I play at to become harder to guard, and he emphasized the importance of my shooting form and making sure to set my feet before I catch the ball.”
Nick said playing in the shadow of his three older brothers — Harrison (2014 UA graduate), Austin (2015 UA graduate) and Avery (2018 UA graduate) — has played a large role in his development.
“Watching my older brothers play basketball got me interested in playing, and I tried to play with them at a young age,” Nick said. “They picked on me and didn’t take it easy on me at all, but that made me tougher, and I learned a lot from them.”
In 2014, Harrison and Austin helped the Golden Bears advance to the state final four for the first time since they captured a state title in 1937.
UA advanced to the final that year before falling to Lakewood St. Edward 62-58 in overtime in front of 14,234 fans at Ohio State’s Value City Arena.
Watching his older brothers play basketball at UA only deepened Nick’s passion for the program and made him more determined to lead the Golden Bears back to the state tournament once again.
State championship aspirations
“Ever since me and my teammates watched my brothers’ team come so close to winning a state championship, our goal has been to finish what they started,” Nick said. “No one believed my brothers’ team could make it to the state tournament back in 2014, so I don’t see any reason why we can’t do it ourselves if we play to our potential.”
Nick is savoring the experience of competing in the postseason tournament with his teammates this season, after his health problems robbed him of that opportunity a year ago.
Heath played a major role in helping UA win its first two district tournament games this year, as he scored a game-high 15 points in a 58-14 victory over Chillicothe on Feb. 22 and had a team-best 18 points in a 56-37 win over Olentangy on Feb. 25.
The seventh-seeded Golden Bears, who are 19-4 overall, will face fifth-seeded Newark in a district semifinal tonight at Watkins Memorial.
“I’m grateful to be fully healthy again,” Heath said. “It was a tough experience last year, but I just had to suck it up and get through it. I realize how fortunate I am, because other kids have had to overcome bigger setbacks, like having cancer.
“I have high hopes for (college) basketball, but I’m just really focused on doing what I can for my high school team because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we’re trying to make the most of it.”
